By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Pretoria High Court has ordered the immediate reinstatement of Tshwane City Manager Johan Mettler, setting aside his precautionary suspension.
The Democratic Alliance(DA) and trade union Solidarity, of which Mettler is a member, approached the High Court on an urgent basis this week to overturn resolutions adopted during a council sitting earlier this month.
The Tshwane council voted to suspend Mettler following a complaint laid against him by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
The complaint penned by EFF against Mettler contains allegations relating to procurement processes, labour disputes, appointments of senior officials and governance failures. It also refers to findings by oversight institutions, including the Public Protector and the Auditor-General.
Among the issues raised are allegations relating to irregular expenditure, the implementation of lifestyle audits, disciplinary action against municipal employees and the handling of procurement matters within the city.
Mettler was suspended on full pay pending investigation on the misconduct allegations against him.
Fullview reported that after the votes had been cast, and counted, the Speaker arbitrarily deducted 13 votes from various parties, reversing the outcome and paving the way for Mettler’s suspension.
Judge AJ Pillay handed the judgement on Friday evening.
In his ruling, judge Pillay found that the Speaker had no legal authority to determine the voting rights of councillors which cast doubt on the validity of resolutions adopted at the meeting, including the appointment of an acting city manager after the suspension of Mettler.
The judge also found that the DA had met the requirements for urgent relief and rejected arguments that the party should have pursued internal council remedies first.
The DA, meanwhile, has welcomed the Court’s decision.
DA Tshwane mayoral candidate, Cilliers Brink said, “It is clear that Johann Mettler can return to work and Tshwane is prevented from doing anything to give a fact to what we believe to be the unlawful council resolution that had him suspended.”
Tshwane is governed by a multiparty coalition that includes the ANC, EFF, and ActionSA, under the executive mayoralty of ActionSA’s Nasiphi Moya.
This coalition, which took power after the DA-led administration was removed through a motion of no confidence, also includes several smaller parties.